E30 Zone

Just wondering, i was about to change the oil and forgot that the BTB manifold was kinda in the way of the oil filter.
Do i really have to take it off to change the filter or is there any tricks to get around this?

reverse the oil filter housing 180 degrees. Swop the oil cooler pipes round, this will reverse the flow but it will work fine. Then you can get to the oil filter for future changes.

Yes you must change it, no point putting new oil in really if you don't

ok seems like i got work to do then.
thanks for the quick answer simon

You can do it with the exhaust on - I unscrewed the filter and with a bucket under it passed it between the manifold and the end of the part that attaches to the filter (which has the oil cooler feeds off of it). Spilt a little oil into the bucket but easier than removing the manifold by a long shot

Dunx wrote:You can do it with the exhaust on - I unscrewed the filter and with a bucket under it passed it between the manifold and the end of the part that attaches to the filter (which has the oil cooler feeds off of it). Spilt a little oil into the bucket but easier than removing the manifold by a long shot

Ok, i'm gonna look into that, thanks.

The BTB is a good manifold but this is one of the drawbacks.
The other one is zero access to the block coolant drain plug, feckin impossible to get to

I tried the 180 degree trick on my old e30 and it worked fine, unfortunately the aircon compressor is in the way on this one. Filter strap is the tool of choice now.

Cheers,

Iain T

Iain i've had this problem you can point it to the floor instead. But you will have to lose the bracket which holds the cooler pipes to the front panel. Otherwise they won't sretch far enough and they cross thread easily as the filter housing is ally. As i have found out in the past!

Simon13 wrote:Iain i've had this problem you can point it to the floor instead. But you will have to lose the bracket which holds the cooler pipes to the front panel. Otherwise they won't sretch far enough and they cross thread easily as the filter housing is ally. As i have found out in the past!

Nice one Simon, shame I read this post after just finishing my 2.8 install

Cheers,

Iain T

We used a slightly cruder crowbar method with the hottuning manifold
Only need a tiny bit of movement though and there was enough room.